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ISRAEL TARGETS BEIRUT; AL-QAEDA ANNOUNCES THAT THEY ARE IN KASHMIR; AFTERMATH IN MUMBAI: Richard Wolffe, Newsweek White House correspondent and MSNBC political analyst

Even we didn't think the infamous, deplorable Keith Olbermann could possibly shove the emerging war in the Middle East to the back burner just to flog The Great Leak Case. But we should have known: it is impossible to overestimate the biases of America's most dangerous demagogue. Countdown is almost certainly the only "news hour" on television to make the frivilous Wilson suit its top story. We did wonder, however, what attorney Krazy Keith could possibly dig up to hype this feeble political machination. The answer should have been obvious to us: nobody. So KO went, for a "legal" analysis, to everyone's favorite disbarred lawyer, John Dean!

Keith plugged the felon's "remarkable new book", and the ex-con preposterously claimed the suit was a "strong case". No surprise there, since felon Dean also admitted he long ago recommended that they sue. The ex-con babbled on, but frankly, what value is the "expert" opinion of a disbarred lawyer?

Keith name-dropped that he got an email from Joe Wilson, and suggested that maybe they should sue Robert Novak too. Hey, it's "attack the media" again! No concerns of any "chilling effect", though. The disbarred lawyer didn't explain how the Wilsons were going to prove something (a conspiracy to discredit) that a special prosecutor with unlimited funds and three years hasn't been able to prove. Neither did he address the peculiar, incendiary, politically worded complaint, dismissed by actual legal experts as, at a minimum, weird.

Then it was time for political analysis, and that means Krazy Keith's favorite lunatic, Lawrence ("Liar! Creepy Liar!") O'Donnell. Olby long ago stopped identifying him as a "Democratic" strategist, possibly in the feeble hope that we wouldn't notice. But Olbermann Watch misses nothing. Time to update The List (partisan politicos and strategists interviewed on Countdown):

May 22: Lawrence O'Donnell (D)

May 30: Rep Barney Frank (D)

June 9: Lawrence O'Donnell (D)

June 15: Bob Schrum (D)

June 16: Rep John Murtha (D)

June 19: Al Gore (D)

June 20: Sen Jack Reed (D)

June 20: Lawrence O'Donnell (D)

June 23: Al Gore (D)

July 5: Lawrence O'Donnell (D)

July 12: Barbara Boxer (D)

July 13: Lawrence O'Donnell (D)

Does anyone think this list is, well, just a teensy bit one-sided?

O'Donnell shocked KO by opining that "this is a very weak case", and believes it will likely be tossed out of court. He delivered for Olby by talking about the great damage civil depositions could do to the administration, but then explained that those depositions might not be a walk in the park for the Wilsons either. You know you are on OlbyPlanet when Dean actually makes Larry O seem moderate. All of this must be taken with a grain of salt, since O'Donnell is not an attorney. But then again, neither is felon Dean.

Olby News Alert!

It's another stunning journalistic "get" for comedian Keith Olbermann. He announced that next week The Great Man himself will appear on Countdown. Joe Wilson. In person! Dan Abrams must be so proud. KO also bragged that one of Wilson's slip-and-fall lawyers will appear for an interview tomorrow. Talk about hype. It's tonight's top story even over an outbreak of war. It gets flogged again tomorrow with the plaintiff's mouthpiece (and no opposing point of view). Then next week, more, More, MORE!

The war, pushed back to the #4 slot, was disposed of via a taped report from NBC. Then it was tonight's "attack the GOP" segment, where KO attempted to equate a NewsMax ad for military-style camouflage hats with the recent DNC ad showing flag-draped coffins. Who exactly will Krazy Keith get to deliver the Dem's talking points on this issue? That job fell on NBC's Chip Ried. Olby started right off by regurgitating an old ploy from his shopworn box of tricks (this move, no matter what it is, is bad for the GOP):

Did all they do really here is draw attention to an obscure campaign ad that would not have received any attention if they kept quiet here? Did they get played by the Democrats in that old familiar fashion?

Chip's response was music to Keith's ears ("you're absolutely right"). KO wanted him to rip on John Boehner, who said military coffins are not the same as 9/11 images used by the GOP in the past. Ried tried to summarize the different sides ("they say", "they believe") but his sympathies crept through. Next Olby complained that:

No one seems to be objecting to the fact that there are flag-draped coffins. Would it seem a little less disingenuous, could somebody really steal the march here, for somebody criticizing this to just drop in one line starting with: of course we wish there were no coffins to show...

So Republican criticisms, and the objections of war veterans and serving military, are dismissed by Keith as "disingenuous". And his suggested wording? He only wants it to apply to the people criticizing the ad, not to the people running the ad itself!

In the Media Matters Minute, KO demonstrated again just how "apolitical" this segment is. A Republican Congresswoman was "worse", and conservative Brent Bozell was "worser" (for criticizing the New York Times support of "Gay Games"). Olby's kiss on the cheek to the Soros site will be rewarded, in quid-pro-quo fashion, with free PR video at Media Matters, to be posted within the next 24 hours.

42 Comments

Who is this imposter posing as Lawrence O'Donnell? He was way off the CD talking points. "Weak case, totally political. A win is not getting this case dismissed before discovery." What happened to Larry?

Good thing KO has Plame's lawyer on tomorrow to rehabilitate O'Donnell.

How ironic was it watching KO read an email someone sent him on the air. After all the problems KO has had the last month, wouldn't it seem that the last word KO would want to say on the air is "email."

Think he responded with "Great thanks. I'll use your talking points on the air tonight. Next time could you send some sexy pics of Val? Maybe she could come up to NY for the weekend."?

"O'Donnell shocked KO by opining that "this is a very weak case", and believes it will likely be tossed out of court."

The Wilsons' have been told to sue by all the lefties. Maybe Joe Wilson is dumb enough to believe that is a good idea, but I doubt it. The disaster of Wilson on the stand with his history of lying, and Val, with her history of an oh-so-covert desk job, and with her child's history of blurting out "my mommy is a spy" in airports, any law suit would be a complete disaster for them. O'Donnell knows this, and he is spinning for them. It is a "weak" case because it was designed to be so. It just gives crazy Joe and 007 Plame more vanity and slander time.

Just what will these nuts do if the case is taken up by the court? Perjure themselves in their own civil suit? It would be fun to watch lyin' Joe's flop sweat during a grilling by real lawyers.

Leave it to Olby to run with this crap and ignore the war in Israel. Olby probably has conversations like this during the day:

When the thoroughly discredited Joe Wilson, one-time "Ambassador" to Gabon and husband of the irrelevant federal bureaucat Valerie Plame, appears on Odorman's show, which one will be on his knees worshipping the other?

When the thoroughly discredited Joe Wilson, one-time "Ambassador" to Gabon and husband of the irrelevant federal bureaucat Valerie Plame, appears on Odorman's game show, which one will be on his knees worshipping the other?

When the thoroughly discredited Joe Wilson, one-time "Ambassador" to Gabon and husband of the irrelevant federal bureaucat Valerie Plame, appears on Odorman's game show, which one will be on his knees worshipping the other?

Note that Olbermann also attacked Anderson Cooper tonight. I guess his goal is to have as many enemies in the journalism business as possible before his show is cancelled for low ratings or he's fired for violating company e-mail policy.

"I ran into a massive study that has really been going on 50 years now by academics. They've never really shared this with the general public. It's a remarkable analysis of the authoritarian personality. Both those who are inclined to follow leaders and those who jump in front and want to be the leaders. It was not the opinion of social scientists. It was information they drew by questioning large numbers of people -- hundreds of thousands of people -- in anonymous testing"

This guy is paranoid schizophrenic. I feel better in a way, his sincerity seemed more genuine then you see in dems-he was speaking from his beliefs-his paranoid delusional ones. and I always thought that Liddy was the nuttiest.

Folloing Opie's lead, new strategy for this esteemed "news" organization seems to take cheap shots at it's "competetion" Mr. Bow tie has now hammered CNN three nights in a row (goes wihtout saying Fox too). Nancy Grace was disparaged, even Wolf Blitzer, who left a Chicago accident scene to talk about global warming - in MessNBC's eyes - just downright poor journalism. The inmates are running the asylum. Where is Jack Welsh - what was the name of his book - losing?
Tonya Harding/MessNBC - Tonya Harding/MessNBC

By the way - Rita's slot is now a great abyss. God only knows what they put on for fillers

Krazy Keith, Joe Wilson and 'what's her name', his wife, just happen to meet at an annonymous sex club ala platos retreat. Sparks fly. Reckless, cautionless, feverish love making ensues. Guess which one was left alone to quietly sit in the corner and smoke cigarettes.

"Using vivid images of smoke pouring from one of the towers of the World Trade Center, Republican Sen. Mike DeWine unleashed a commercial yesterday that charges Democratic challenger Sherrod Brown with casting votes in Congress that could have weakened America’s response to terrorism."

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) -- U.S. President George W. Bush expressed his frustration over the situation in the Middle East by using an expletive in comments to British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg Monday. Not realizing his remarks were being picked up by a microphone at the summit of world leaders, Bush bluntly expressed his frustration with the actions of Hezbollah. "See, the irony is what they really need to do is to get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this (expletive)," Bush told Blair in a discussion before the Group of Eight leaders began their lunch.

+ + +

"President Bush is in Europe at the G8 summit and he's very excited -- he thinks it's a conference on vegetable juice."

"Using vivid images of smoke pouring from one of the towers of the World Trade Center, Republican Sen. Mike DeWine unleashed a commercial yesterday that charges Democratic challenger Sherrod Brown with casting votes in Congress that could have weakened America’s response to terrorism."

Explain to me again how this is not exploiting a national tragedy?"

Yes, Anon is right, we should forget that 9/11 ever happened and should never remind Americans of the consequences of failing to do we all we can to avert something like this from happening again.

"Hey Lefties how does it feel to see you Hezzbollah allies get their asses kicked by Israel. That's why Olbernut didn't talk about it. He's upset!"

We think this whole thing is great! I'm particularly excited about the 25,000 Americans stranded there in the bombing. We are also very excited that a pro-western goverment is getting the shit shelled out of it. Some of us uber lefties like Pat Buchannaon think this whole thing is immoral. (Not attacking Hezbollah_ but attacking a nation of people who are not fond of Hezbollah but just don't have a strong enough goverment to kick Hezzbolah out of the country) But the Pat Buchannon Uber lefties we ignore. Also granted some of the more crazy ones in the left or a little worried about all out war in the middle east and are sad that civilians are getting killed. I know this will shock you christians to the right that some of us feel bad when killing occurs but even more un-christian some of us would rather this war not spread. I know we are spoling your fun, when all you really want is some death and destruction because conservatives such as yourself are commited to making the world a better place.

Yes, Anon is right, we should forget that 9/11 ever happened and should never remind Americans of the consequences of failing to do we all we can to avert something like this from happening again.

Absolutely! Americans should be reminded of 9/11 with every possible chance -- especially to justify selective invasions and regime changes and incumbent re-elections and executive power grabs and warrentless spying and to shout down public discourse!